Phantom and Feline
by Iris Musicia
Summary: A story of love, loss, rage, and the power of the human spirit to rise above tragedy and the worst lot in life.  Kurtty, fuller  summary inside.
1. Fur

**Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men (and I hate having to type that every single time I write a new chapter on a fanfiction).**

**A/N: I hope you all enjoy the relaunch of Phantom and Feline! Minimizing sparkly pony time and MAXIMIZING Kurtty time! Here we go!**

**Fur**

Kurt Wagner was depressed. Staring up at the ceiling at the poster that his friend Evan had put there of his favorite band, a crinkled letter hung loosely in his hand. The room was completely quiet, except for the sound of Kurt's breathing.

As he lay, glaring murderously at the poster on the ceiling, Kitty Pryde walked into the room. At first she didn't see him, but then she spotted the telltale blue tail hanging over the arm of the couch, tip twitching agitatedly.

"Hey Kurt," Kitty said, walking over to hang over the back of the couch. "Wanna go into town and, like, do something?"

Kurt didn't take his eyes off the poster as he answered.

"No."

"Why? What's, like, wrong; other than that poster?" Kitty followed Kurt's eyes.

"Zere's nozing vrong wiz ze poster." Kurt said almost sharply.

"Then why are you, like, so angry?" Kitty pressed. It was very unlike Kurt to be so sullen and moody.

"I'm not angry. I'm zinking." Kurt replied, closing his eyes.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Zings,"

"What sort of things?"

"Difficult zings,"

"Tell me."

"_Nein_. I don't need to burden you viz my problems."

"I want to be burdened. It'll give me something to do."

"Fine."

"Tell me anything."

"I got a letter from my brozzer a few days ago . . ." Kurt started, opening his eyes and looking at the letter in his hand, which he brought up to rest on his chest tiredly.

"What was it about?" Kitty asked sympathetically, gesturing towards the letter.

"Back home, zings are going badly . . . my seester, Jimaine, lost her job,"

"That's too bad,"

"Stefan voz convicted for ze murder of a girl."

"Wow. That's really awful," Kitty said, her eyes wandering to other things, like Evan standing in the doorway. She ignored him for now.

"My mozzer voz . . ." Kurt trailed off. He closed his eyes again and tears fell from the corners into his fur.

"Was . . . ?" Kitty prompted.

"My mozzer vas killed in a riot." Kurt choked out, taking a shuddering breath. "Ze people found out she vas a sorceress und zey vent into her tent und brought her out into ze town sqvare . . ."

Kitty remained silent, squinting at the hurried scrawl of German words on the page in Kurt's grip.

"Und zey beat her vile zey made Stefan und Jimaine vatch. Stefan says zat zey burned her at ze stake, demanding to know vhere I vas, so zey could kill me, ze demon . . . but she vouldn't tell zem, so zey burned her. And zey call _me_ ze monster! Zey are monsters." Kurt growled, reining in his tears.

" . . . I thought that was, like, medieval," Kitty murmured.

"Oh, no, anyzing cruel and unusual, zey'll do it!" Kurt shouted and sat up, crumpling the letter into a ball and throwing it at the wall, nodding angrily as tears clouded his gold gaze. Evan recoiled from the ball of paper and backed quickly away down the hall.

Kitty was at a loss for words.

"But you'll stand by me, right?" Kurt asked Kitty, his rage fading. He seemed to shrink visibly as he turned to face her, picking his tail up and running his fingers over the flat, arrowhead-shaped barb.

She hesitated for a moment, short enough that Kurt didn't notice. "Definitely, Kurt. You're, like, my best friend. Best friends stick together." Kitty assured him, still quite scared so she didn't approach him.

"Jimaine und Stefan can't show zeir faces in town again, zey're ze children of a sorceress and ze seeblinks of a demon. It's like a taboo." Kurt said sadly. "Und I can't do anyzing about it."

"Aw, Kurt," Kitty murmured pity for the boy overcoming fear. She walked around the couch to wrap her arms around Kurt's hunched frame. He kept his eyes on his tail.

"I don't know vat to do anymore," Kurt said quietly. "Everyzing's so confusing now, people just can't tolerate us, so zey kill us. Sometimes, I vonder vat it vould be like if I vasn't a mutant . . . vould I grow up viz normal parents, hating mutants for freaks, vould I not know, or vould I just tolerate and live viz zem? Makes me realize how _fragile_ our lives are, really . . . " Kurt whispered, fingering the rosary he wore around his neck outside of school. Kitty squeezed him gently in a comforting way.

"Whaddya say we go into town? Get your mind off of things for now? No—a snack first. Then town." Kitty said with a smile. Kurt stayed silent for a moment, then replied.

"Okay."

"Right then!" Kitty pulled him by the hand through the rec. room down the hallways and staircase to the kitchen. Thankfully, no one was there. Kurt sat down in a chair with his chin resting on the table as his eyes followed Kitty around the kitchen, getting ice cream, bowls, and spoons before going to sit down across from him. Just as Kitty was about to make contact with the seat of the chair, there was a loud yelp.

"Hey! Hey! I'm here!" a female voice spoke hurriedly, and a young Korean lady with short, straight black hair materialized in the chair.

"Who are you?" Kitty demanded, straightening up quickly. She glared at the girl.

"I'm Milani, and I just got here today – I'm a new recruit. Who are you?" Milani said, looking from Kitty, angry, to Kurt, mildly surprised. "And what's up with _you_?"

"I'm Kitty, and this is Kurt. We've lived here at the Institute for about three years." Kitty said, a harsh edge to her voice. She phased through the table to sit on Kurt's right.

"_Hab' ich kein Mutant gesehen dass hässt andere Mutants so_." **Never seen a mutant before that hates other mutants so much. **Kurt said to himself. Milani looked at him for a moment intensely. Kurt stared back at her and she shuddered almost imperceptibly before conversationally asking,

"So what do you guys do?"

"I phase through solid objects." Kitty answered reluctantly, waving her hand through the table a couple of times.

"Instantaneous line-of-sight teleportation." Kurt answered autonomously. He started on his ice cream as Professor Xavier's voice sounded in each of their heads. Milani jumped, but Kurt and Kitty were unfazed.

_Attention all new recruits: there will be an orientation in the Recreation Room in two minutes with Logan and Scott. Attendance is mandatory. _

"Guess I'd better go now . . . I'll probably get lost and show up ten minutes late if I don't," Milani said with a rather nervous smile and left the kitchen. Kitty ate her ice cream in silence, watching Kurt cautiously. In her Family Studies class at school, they were studying the grieving process. After the initial shock wears off, someone going through the grieving process can become depressed and suicidal. She really hoped Kurt didn't become suicidal.

Kurt pushed his bowl aside and put his chin back down on the table, eyes unfocused. He was lost in a confusing, stinging haze of emotion, mostly grief, rage, and depression.

"C'mon, Kurt. Let's go now." Kitty said, pulling Kurt away from the table and up to his room. Kitty scrounged around and found his image inducer, and held it out to him, expecting him to put it on. He stared blankly at it as if he didn't know what it was. Kitty sighed and rolled her eyes, then strapped it onto his wrist and pressed the button.

Kurt's image flickered and there stood a tall boy with pale skin and dark black hair, almost indigo. His face wore the same shell-shocked expression.

"Kurt," Kitty murmured, coming up close to him so they were almost touching. "Kurt, can you say something? Please?"

Kurt blinked and looked down at the floor and seemed to come to his senses.

"Sorry. I just can't concentrate," he said distractedly.

"Well, you don't need to concentrate to drive Scott's car, do you?" Kitty teased. Kurt smiled sadly.

"Vatever. I'll try anyvays. You, being a leetle girl, can't drive." Kurt jibed, a touch of his spirit coming back.

~*X*~

As Kitty and Kurt drove down the driveway in Scott's _borrowed_ red-and-white convertible, Kurt told himself to try to be normal.

_Look, Wagner, try to at least _act_ normal. You really don't want the Professor or Jean pawing around in your head, now do you?_

As the gates at the end of the driveway opened, Kurt almost nodded to himself, shooting a glance at Kitty to see if she'd noticed, but she was hanging her arm out over the door, phasing her fingertips through the metal of the gate, laughing. Kurt smiled a little.

Once in Bayville, Kurt parked the car in the mall parking lot and hopped out, choosing not to open the door, but swing himself over it as Kitty giggled.

_He's coming back to himself_. Kitty thought. Still, there were subtle differences in his mannerisms. He didn't smile as much, and he didn't talk as much as he normally did, but he acted more like his old self now. _Maybe I should go to the Professor after all, just in case. _

The pair strolled down the sidewalk, nobody taking a second glance at them. Kitty didn't really know where they were going, and she didn't think Kurt did either. They were walking past the loading bay for the supermarket when Kurt's ears picked up a small sound.

"Keety – listen. You hear zat?" he stopped dead and held out his arm, ears pricked. Kitty shook her head. Wait – there it was again. "It's coming from down zere,"

Kitty turned her head to where Kurt was pointing. The loading bay was empty and bright, but Kurt seemed to sense something down there. He started walking towards the Dumpster slowly, stopping every so often.

"What do you hear? It's, like, really bugging me," Kitty said, following Kurt. She was sure that if Kurt's tail hadn't been hidden down one leg of his pants and covered by a hologram, it would be swishing with anticipation. When he reached the Dumpster, he quickly ducked around behind it. A breeze blew through the loading bay and there was a small _clang_ of metal from one of the rooftops above their heads, which Kitty ignored.

"Aha!" Kurt cried, pulling an embarrassed-looking Milani out from behind the Dumpster by the collar of her shirt.

"Milani?" Kitty asked incredulously.

The girl waved uncertainly, giving them her nervous smile. "Uh, hi . . ."

**Yes, I am cutting the whole kitten thing out. It's unnecessary and it doesn't further the plot, so I've concocted something else to put in there that I think **_**could**_** work, actually. Review and tell me what you think, please!**


	2. Tail

**Tail**

"Vot are you doing here?" Kurt demanded.

"Yeah. Aren't you supposed to be at that seminar-orientation thing at the Institute?" Kitty asked. Milani swallowed nervously, wiggling out of Kurt's grasp.

"They let it out early, so I came down here." She said, straightening up.

"Vot vere you doing in a loading bay behind a Dumpster?" Kurt asked, crossing his arms as he glared at Milani.

"I don't have to explain myself to _you_ two," Milani said contemptuously, shaking her hair and crossing her arms, too.

"Maybe not. But you _will_ have to explain yourself to the Professor." Kitty smirked as the high-and-mighty smirk slid off the girl's face.

"I take it you don't vont to talk to ze Professor. Vy don't you talk to us instead and ve'll cut you a break and never tell anyvone?" Kurt suggested, the corners of his mouth turning up in a small, devious smirk.

The black-haired girl looked stuck between a rock and a hard place, fidgeting and looking from Kurt to Kitty and back.

"All right. I was meeting a couple friends here. We were planning a surprise party for . . . Rogue. For her birthday," She said quickly, looking relieved and somewhat hopeful. Kitty stared at Kurt with an "are you thinking what I'm thinking?" look. Kurt nodded slightly.

Kitty laughed, surprising Milani. "Okay, what were you really doing?"

"Planning Rogue's surprise party." Milani insisted.

"Cut ze crap. Rogue's birzday vos two monz ago. I know zat becoz I'm her brozzer. _Vot vere you really doing?_" Kurt growled. Kitty almost recoiled. He was channeling his grief into anger and acting _really_ out of character. Milani seemed to shrink several inches before squeaking,

"I-I was meeting a couple people about a sort of business a—deal. Selling an essay on Mark Twain."

"_Right_. Okay, back to ze Institute we go." Kurt grabbed both girls' wrists and teleported them back to the car very riskily, though fortunately nobody was around. A few minutes later, Scott's car was back in the garage and no one was any the wiser to its ever leaving the garage. Milani, however, was being turned over to Storm for a lecture about "academic honesty."

Kitty dragged Kurt up to her room to chill, the rec. room being filled with new recruits chilling, the kitchen being populated by more new recruits grabbing snacks and chilling, and the lobby being a _boring_ place to chill.

Kurt was messing with a long piece of blue ribbon he had playfully snagged off Kitty's nightstand, much to her annoyance. She had been talking about school, Kurt not minding, until she suddenly changed the subject.

"What would you do if I died tomorrow?" Kitty asked suddenly, making Kurt's head snap up.

"Vat? Vy vould you ask such a stupid qvestion as zat?" Kurt demanded.

"I just wanted to know," Kitty held her hands up defensively.

"Vell, I vould be sad," Kurt began, frowning and trying to imagine what it would feel like.

"You would only be sad?" Kitty asked coyly, batting her eyelashes. What was she doing? Was this some odd way of flirting with him?

"I vould be very sad. All ze vomen in my life vould be dying!" Kurt said with a hint of humor, catching on and playing into Kitty's hands.

"Really? And what would you do if I decided to do this?" Kitty murmured, crossing the floor between the bureau and the bed quickly. She was so close to him, the tiny space between their bodies practically crackling with the tension. Kurt breathed in her rich, warm scent and put the ribbon down. Kitty looked through her eyelashes at him and placed her fingers, one at a time, carefully on his cheek. Kurt felt helpless, lost in her eyes and scent, nothingness swirling in his mind except Kitty – her wonderful closeness, the temptation, the _desire_ . . . he wanted Kitty to just kiss him already! And then she was—across the room? How did that happen? !

"Don't play viz me like zat! It's not fair," Kurt protested rather weakly. He looked up and Kitty was, once again, perched on the bureau, smiling slightly.

"It's fair enough . . . you're so fun to toy with," Kitty said playfully, then Kurt caught the sound of car tires rumbling up the drive and he went to the window. All thoughts of messing with Nightcrawler's affections gone, Kitty followed and looked over his shoulder at the car.

It was a dull grey-green Jeep. Lance's Jeep. He seemed to like Kitty, and for appearances' sake, Kitty pretended to like him. Lance had often tried to go on a date to the movies with Kitty, but she either refused point-blank or arranged something quickly with Rogue or Kurt. Rogue was Kitty's good friend and used to be her roommate, until a room opened up and Kitty and Rogue were able to have their own rooms.

"I'd better go, like, intercept him before he sees you or Scott," Kitty said quickly, sinking through the floor to the Library, which was beneath her room. From the Library, she would phase through the wall into the lobby to get Lance. Kurt stayed upstairs, itching for a fight, but not wanting to upset Kitty by picking World War III with her pseudo-boyfriend. He teleported back to his room and went straight to the chandelier to hang upside down, his favorite way to think.

Twenty minutes later, after Kitty managed, just barely, to turn Lance away, she phased back up to her room and found Kurt gone.

_And my ribbon,_ Kitty smiled to herself. She knew Kurt well enough to know that he had gone back to his room. She phased through her door out into the hallway and down to Kurt's room, knocking before entering.

"What's, like, on your mind?" Kitty asked. Stupid question. She knew what was on his mind.

"I don't know if I should go back to Germany to see Jimaine und Stefan. Our mozzer died, and I'm still here, in America. If your mozzer died, vouldn't you go back home to see her buried?" Kurt asked from the chandelier. He let go of the metal and dropped, but right before he hit the ground, teleported and ended up standing in front of Kitty.

"Well, yeah, I guess," Kitty said. Kurt's intense gaze was uncomfortable, so she dropped her eyes to watch Kurt play with her ribbon, winding around this fingers repeatedly.

"I need to go see ze Professor und ask him if I could go back to Germany," Kurt said, more to himself as he started walking away, to his mirror.

"Yeah . . . but Fuzzy, how long would you, like, be gone?" Kitty asked. Kurt didn't seem to hear her.

"_I_ caused Margali to die," he said quietly to his reflection, so Kitty couldn't hear, then whirled around and addressed Kitty. "Two veeks, at most."

"Oh. That's a long time," Kitty said.

"Not nearly long enough for vat I'm going for. Kätzchen, do you mind if you give me some space?" Kurt asked. Kitty shook her head and left the room. As soon as the heel of her sandal had disappeared through the door, Kurt turned back to the mirror.

"Vy do you kill people, Kurt? Do you like killing people? Maybe you don't even know you're doing it . . . or do you?" Kurt asked his reflection. "You're ze reazon Margali died, you know. You killed her. Stefan und Jimaine vould never do anyzing like zat, so vy do you do it? Because you're _a Nightcrawler_. A no-good, murdering sonofabitch from Hell, zat's vot you are. _Dämon!_"

Kurt punched his mirror and it shattered, the reflection of his snarling face deteriorating into a thousand pieces. The pain in his fist felt wonderfully real in this nightmare of a day. The second the glass fell to the floor, he distantly heard feet pounding, sinking slowly to his knees. There was a gentle knock on the door that he ignored, retreating into himself. The door opened slowly.

"Kurt? Are you feeling okay?" It was Evan. Though Evan was talking rather loudly, Kurt didn't hear. He was lost inside himself with no hope of getting out; it was like walking into a pit of tar. One way ticket: in, not out.

"Hey, Kurt!" Evan came over and shook his shoulder. Acting on instinct alone, Kurt jumped up suddenly, baring his fangs and growling like a cornered dog. Evan jumped backwards and held out his hands, as if to stop Kurt from doing something.

"Kurt, dude, it's me! You know me! Evan!" Evan's shouts fell only on Kurt's deaf ears. He kept growling, eyes trained on Evan's throat. His wild side, the Nightcrawler, had taken over.

_Kurt, stop!_

Professor X was attempting to reach Kurt telepathically. Kurt turned his head around, looking for where his voice had come from. The door to Kurt's room opened and Jean ran in and took in the scene.

_Kurt, I'm warning you, back down._

Jean was now trying to talk to him through her mind. Kurt snarled at her.

"You leave me no choice," Jean said sadly. She put her hands to her temples in concentration. A sharp blast of energy narrowly missed Evan, but hit Kurt full-on. He was strong, but not that strong. The boy fell to the floor, eyes rolled back in his head. Jean levitated him out the door and down the hallway. Evan didn't know where she was taking him, but it was either the medical bay or Professor X's study. Rattled, he went back to his room to clean his skateboard and try to calm down.

Kitty came out of her room as Jean walked past. She saw Kurt being levitated down the hall.

"Jean! What happened?" Kitty shouted. Jean shook her head.

"I'll tell you in a minute." Kitty sighed. Nobody ever said 'in a minute' and came back and told you what happened.

In the Professor's study, Kurt had been laid down on the couch and the Professor, Jean, Storm, Logan, and Scott were standing around him.

"So whaddya gonna do to the Elf?" Logan asked.

"First, we have to find what's causing his very uncharacteristic aggression. Then, we can help him with whatever's going on," the Professor said, putting his hands on Kurt's temples.

"This could be hard."


	3. Fangs

**Disclaimer: I still don't own XME.**

**Fangs**

Darkness. Raging emotions and depression weighing on his body, on his heart, on his thoughts and actions, tainting them. Helplessness he couldn't do anything about. He killed Margali! Anger. Anger at the townspeople in Germany. Anger at himself. Anger at God, who could have stopped this. And there was fear. Heart-stopping, overpowering fear. If the people killed Margali, would they come to kill him? What would they stop at to execute their "demon?" They would take him down in a heartbeat, so why was he going to Germany, right into their hands? He knew he would die someday, one way or another. Nobody lived forever. How would he die? Would God let him into heaven?

Professor X was as lost in Kurt's mind as Kurt himself was. They couldn't gain any footholds of rationality. The feelings were so strong, like gale winds, they swept the two mutants away and threw them around like a tornado. They were playthings of whatever instincts Kurt had. Animalistic instincts. No! Professor X had to get out!

With great difficulty, the Professor pulled himself from Kurt's mind.

"What is it, Charles?" Storm, or Ororo, asked gently.

"Kurt's mind is in turmoil. There's no structure, only emotion. He has withdrawn into himself and his instincts are controlling him. Instincts very much like a predatory animal's." Professor X said, steepling his fingers. As the five were absorbing this, Kurt stirred. He sat up and looked blearily around.

Jean froze in something close to fear. The Professor was wary, waiting for him to move. Logan was on edge by what the Professor had said, and Storm was weighing how much control Kurt had over how strong his emotions were.

While he appeared peaceful on the outside, on the inside, Kurt was grappling for control, fighting his instincts with bared fangs and hateful eyes. Kurt pounced on his instincts and beat them down, sitting high above the dark pit of whirlwind emotions that he had been caught in. Finally, he perched above it all, sad, but in control nonetheless.

"I need to go to Germany," were the first words out of Kurt's mouth. Everyone looked relieved, and, to some degree, confused.

"But why, Kurt? You're not really . . ." Jean started.

"Not really vat? Not really strong enough? Not really in control enough?" he asked sharply. "I said ze same zing to Keety: if _your_ mozzer died, vould you not vant to go and see her vone last time? Tell me zat you'd stay here und act very normally vile your brozzer und seester are having a funeral for her. Tell me zat you vouldn't care."

Jean was at a loss for words. Storm, however, wasn't.

"Kurt, you don't understand the whole situation. If you went back to Germany, even for two days, you'd be in danger. We understand that people in Germany don't like demons, and Kurt, you happen to look like a demon."

"Zank you for pointing out ze most obvious zing in ze room," Kurt said sarcastically.

"Let me finish. What do you think would happen if you went to Germany and you didn't come back. What would happen to us? Really, Kurt, you can't go." Storm said resolutely while Kurt thought up a thorny remark.

"I stand by vat I said earlier. You von't make me stay, _und damit basta_![1]" Kurt said, and teleported away.

"What did he just say?" Jean asked, astounded. Nobody knew.

"Well, if you took German, you'd know that '_und damit basta'_ means the same as 'and that's that.' I don't what to know what you thought it meant." Evan said from the doorway. He turned and left the doorway for the rec. room, which had, by this time, been vacated by the new recruits.

Meanwhile, up in his room, Kurt was scheming on how to get to Germany. Flights to there were long and expensive. He could stow away in a plane. He didn't care. In his crazy, maniacal determination, he was willing to go to the extremes. There was a knock on his door and he whipped around to see Kitty standing there.

"You look better," she said almost shyly. Kurt kept staring at her, waiting for her to say something that actually meant something to his frenzied mind. When Kitty saw Kurt wasn't going to say anything, she abandoned all pretense of conversation.

"Kurt. I heard from Jean you're, like, going to Germany. It's too dangerous. You won't go!" she said forcefully, crossing the room and grabbing Kurt's shoulder, for he had turned his back on her. He turned around quickly, teeth bared at the touch. Kitty backed up in alarm, which quickly became anger.

"Fine! Be that way! See what I care when you get yourself killed!" and with that, she stormed out of his room. Kurt's brain didn't register the weight of what had just happened, only that Kitty had become angry and left.

As soon as a gazelle runs from danger, Kurt made up his mind. He was stowing away – and leaving tonight.

**[1] The phrase, '**_**und damit basta**_**' really does mean 'and that's that.' My German teacher, Frau Hall, taught the class that, along with some other words. **


	4. Eyes

**Disclaimer: It's still the same, so I hope you've memorized it!**

**A/N: This chapter is really a flashback, heads up.**

**Eyes**

_They say the eyes are the window to the soul. They say the eyes give away all. They say the eyes are what makes a person human. What happens when a person is born with no eyes? Are they not human, not part of what we humans call accepted society? Are they a monster, to be feared, killed, and hated? Are they a disfigured human, to be pitied and put to sleep? _

_How can you see into my eyes,_

_Like open doors?_

_Leading you down into my core, _

_Where I've become so numb._

_Do they not have a soul? Do they not feel, not love, nor hate? Do they not understand the way they are cursed? Do they know the world they cannot see? Do they not feel fear when someone whispers in their ear of wondrous dark secrets? Do they ever really live? Do they?_

Panic. That was all the poor woman ever knew. Panic: would the villagers know? Panic: would the father know? Panic: what would happen at the birth? Panic: would either of them survive?

Her thoughts were broken, confused. Did the voice mean to kill the baby at the birth? Why her? Had the entity chosen other unfortunate women to suffer? God will she lived through this.

Pain tore through her body. In the forest, just feet in front of her, wolves howled. She felt a spasm of fear as the wolves growled before her, and the torchlight and rough shouts of the villagers chased her, fuelling her terror. Taking no note of her surroundings, she plunged into the darkness, her bare feet pounding on the rough, twig-strewn forest floor.

The wolves padded along, keeping pace easily. The villagers faded away and dissolved at the border of the forest, torches extinguished and weapons dropped. The wolves would finish the freak carrying the Devil's child. The woman felt pain as the baby kicked hard. She stopped and doubled over. The wolves encroached, their eyes glinting in the dull moonlight.

The woman's breath came in short, sharp pants as she looked up and saw the pairs of eyes focused on her vulnerable form. She stood. One of the wolves leaped for her, its teeth and claws raking rough gashes down her back. She screamed in pain and fell forwards. All the predators rushed forwards. Claws raked her skin and teeth carved out fatal designs in her chest and neck.

She was dying already. The wolves were doing her a favor. This baby was killing her. As four sharp canine teeth were about to end her short, painful life, a clang echoed through the woods and the sounds of yelping, pained wolves filled her ears. Blood dripped from her body into the ground, clouding her vision and senses. Rough hands lifted her as blackness and nothingness enveloped her.

The feeling of relief that her choppy life was coming to an end was replaced once again by panic as the woman awoke on a cold bed of stone. Where was she? Why was she here? Why did she feel no pain? She opened her eyes to darkness. Once they adjusted, dark grey blocks of rough-hewn stone swam into view. She saw the awful wounds the wolves had inflicted on her, but felt nothing from them.

She lifted her head and saw her toes. How could she? She was nine months pregnant – well, not anymore. Her fingers found neat rows of stitches on her stomach where the baby should have been. Nothing was right here.

The woman swung her legs over the side of the stone and sat up, making her head spin wildly. Once the world had come to a stop, the woman gazed around what appeared to be dungeons of a large castle. She was alone. There was a sliver of light cast on the wall from under a door. The way out. As the woman stood and walked over to the door, she heard faint noises. Noises of life, noises of habitation. She heaved open the door. Her breath caught in her throat.

There was no mistaking the cries. They were the screams of a newborn. The screams of a newborn in pain and distress. _Her_ newborn.

In the laboratory upstairs from the dungeons, the man held the newborn in his hands. He was a normal baby, all except in the fact he had not opened his eyes. The man's gentle fingers opened the child's eyes and almost dropped the thing.

It had no eyes. Only empty sockets. A horribly disfigured baby.

"An outcast by birth. Nobody will miss him – except that woman . . . I could take care of her if you so wish . . . ?" A low, smooth voice asked from the man's left. "He will be perfect for your purpose . . ."

There was no arguing with the man's servant's infallible logic.

"Start the generators. I'll need electricity."

Separated from her baby and frantic, the woman was trying to reach the source of the cries, which cut off suddenly as a sinister humming wound through the walls.

"No!" she screamed. A door clanged open at the end of the hall and a figure stood silhouetted for a second before the door closed with an ominous groan.

"Come here, woman. I need to tell you something," the smooth voice of the man's servant spoke. The woman, shaking from head to toe, approached the servant. He had short red hair and wore a long, dark brown cloak. Heavy boots and leather gloves covered his feet and hands. He had a surprisingly kind face with dark blue eyes and an abundance of freckles stretching across the bridge of his nose. None of this mattered. What mattered was that he was a mutant.

"Tell me my baby is safe!" the woman shouted, ten feet away from the servant.

"I'm afraid I cannot say that he is safe _now_. However, he will be safe in a few minutes," he said coldly with a wicked grin. The woman's heart nearly stopped.

"No . . . you can't . . ." the woman said weakly, sinking to her knees.

"No, _I_ can't, but Magneto can. You were very hard to find, _Mystique_. Show me what you look like. I won't beat you. I'm a mutant like you. They call me Pyro, for a strange, small reason," the servant said with a smirk. Mystique looked up at him, afraid what he was going to say next.

"What do you mean, show you what I look like?" she asked in a wavering voice. Pyro raised his hand and struck her across the face swiftly.

"You know what I mean! I said I would not beat you, but you may push me to it if you insist on playing this game," Mystique flinched as she expected Pyro to hit her again, but this time, the tips of his leather gloves trailed across her cheek. She glared at him defiantly before letting herself go.

Her skin seemed to be burning for the smallest second before the change spread to the tips of her toes. She stood and Pyro took in her appearance with highly interested eyes. Her hair was now down to her waist and flaming red. Her skin, previously stained red with blood, was now a dark gray-blue. Her irises were very dark brown, close to black. Clothes had appeared with her, in the form of a long, neat-fitting white dress.

"I think I may have to go back on my word," Pyro said respectively, his gaze lingering on parts of Mystique's body.

"Now give me my child!" Mystique demanded. Pyro laughed cruelly.

"I cannot do that, you poor woman! I'm afraid your _son_ won't survive what Magneto has in store for him. The best you can do is to leave this castle and never breathe a word. Perhaps you can have a _real_ son now."

"What do you mean, a "_real_ son"?" Mystique asked sharply. Pyro laughed again.

"The baby Magneto has upstairs has no eyes, Mystique. He would have been killed anyway. Do not trouble yourself with him. Go find yourself a new village, if you please." Pyro held the door he had come through open, telling more than inviting. Mystique was halfway through when she shape shifted. Assuming the form of a large grey wolf, she turned and attacked Pyro viciously, leaving him bleeding and moaning on the floor as she galloped through the castle, toward the source of the humming, and her son.

She flew up the stairs and skidded around the corner, flinging herself into the door blocking her from her child. The door splintered into matchsticks and blinding light met Mystique's eyes, stopping her dead in her tracks. With her eyes closed, she snarled horribly. From the images burning through her eyelids, Mystique saw the large figure of who she assumed was Magneto turn toward her and jump in fright.

Mystique's muscles coiled and released fluidly as she sprang at Magneto. She knocked him aside and snatched the baby from his hands, holding it gently in her teeth as she tore back through the castle. She followed her nose to the cool, fresh night air and burst out into the dark German night. She almost fell into the fathoms-deep ravine that was the moat of the castle, built on the mountains. Sliding to an impressive stop, she sprayed pebbles and chunks of turf over the side.

The baby in her jaws bawled pitifully. She wheeled around and galloped off along the side of the castle until she reached the stone causeway descending into the forest. The wolves in the forest howled again, still mourning for their loss of prey and defeat. As Mystique traced a path around them, the baby started crying again, attracting the canines' attention.

She shape shifted back to her blue-skinned form with the baby in her arms and ran for her life. Mystique came to a rope bridge strung high over the roaring, foaming waters of the nearby river. The wolves stopped at the edge of the bridge, wary of it. They snarled and growled, put tentative paws on the rickety planks, and howled when they found she was unreachable. The new mother looked down at her infant. She screamed.

The wolves went wild with the scream, howling and slavering, watching the people hungrily. The alpha wolf put two paws on the board and stretched his blunt, scarred muzzle toward them. Mystique was torn in horror between the approaching wolf and the monster her child was. The baby was blue, like her, but not by skin pigmentation. He had fur. His ears were pointed and legs deformed; they were digigrade. A stubby, spaded tail made itself known as it swished around the child's legs. He opened his mouth to cry and Mystique saw fangs.

The wolf, meanwhile, was four paws and three steps closer to Mystique, who retreated farther toward the middle of the bridge. The wolf growled in frustration, and snapped at the hem of Mystique's dress. The child was born without eyes, but through what Magneto had done to him, he had eyes, all right.

Suddenly, the wolf made up his mind. Mystique had not even a second to glimpse her child's eyes: pure gold with white irises. No pupils. The wolf bounded over the planks at her, and knocked the baby out of Mystique's hands, falling down toward the raging water that threw itself over the side of the mountain in a spectacular waterfall.

"Please, please! No!" the woman screamed as the wolf's teeth snapped together. Her last thought was,

_Let my baby live._

**In case you didn't know, the baby is Kurt. The song lyrics I used earlier are from **_**Bring Me To Life**_** by Evanescence … but Mystique didn't die, FYI.**


	5. Instinct

**Instinct**

The engines of the plane were loud and annoying. Kurt was hidden in the dark belly of the plane, bound for the München _Flughafen_. Kurt thanked god the plane was carrying pets – or else the belly of the plane wouldn't be pressurized, and he would've been in a world of hurt.

As far as he was concerned, Kurt had plenty of time to plan how to get his revenge on the villagers that had killed his mother; as well as Lothar, his childhood tormentor. His focus had shifted from attending the funeral and grieving quietly to making his desire for revenge well known. His instincts still were at large, driving him to go on, keep scheming, and let the dark fantasies of revenge twist and bend him.

_Revenge is a dish best served cold_, Kurt thought. _I'm keeping mine in the freezer._

At the Institute, though, everyone was in a state of uproar. Kurt had left no note as to where he had gone, and nobody was sure if he had actually followed through on his word and gone to Germany. Kitty refused to say anything as she was still upset that Kurt had growled at her. Only the new recruits, with the exception of Milani, were unaffected. Milani was like the sister Kitty never had: a shoulder to cry on, a person to whisper secrets to, and a person to giggle with over girly things. She was just so nice, and she always helped everybody with whatever problem they had, even Jean or Scott. When they came up against something they couldn't handle, like Scott's algebra homework, they were all amazed when Milani skated through it. She was one of the nicest people at the Institute.

"Kitty? Are you in here?" Milani asked as she knocked on Kitty's door.

"Yeah, what?" Kitty called roughly by means of greeting.

"I came to see if you were okay. I heard that, um, whatshisface upset you. Kurt. You haven't been very happy lately . . . want to talk?" Milani asked as Kitty kept her back to the young lady, sitting cross-legged on her bed, staring out the window.

"No, I'm not happy. It's so not like Kurt to be all dark and moody and crap. His mother's death seriously messed him up." Kitty said shortly.

"Yeah, I'm sure anybody's mother dying would mess you up," Milani said, coming over to sit next to Kitty, who didn't stop her or protest.

"When I first came to the Institute, and Logan was having our first outdoor training session, we were in the woods. I got lost and ended up in the middle of the 'enemy' territory, and it was only Kurt that saved me from getting, like, pelted with paint balloons. He just teleported in, and, like, took me out of the line of fire. When I finally opened my eyes, we were standing in this little clearing. Well, I was sitting and he was up in the tree, but, like, you know what I mean.

"I asked him why he teleported here, and he said it was the heart of the forest. Nobody could get here without teleporting or phasing through a lot of trees. Then I asked him why he took me out of the line of fire, and he gave me this look and said, these were his exact words, I swear: 'Kätzchen, the first time I saw you, I thought you were smart. And now you're asking me why someone from your team who is much more experienced than you helped you. I think I should go back and rethink the first time I saw you.' I remember, I laughed so hard. Kurt's actually really nice and funny when you get to know him." Kitty said with a wry smile, which Milani returned.

"Where do you think he is now?" Milani asked gently.

"Oh, I know where he is now," Kitty said, with absolute certainty, face hardening. "He's found some way to get to Germany, and he's probably halfway there by now."

"I hope he doesn't cause any trouble over there," the Korean girl said. Kitty shook her head.

"The way he was when I last saw him, causing trouble's, like, the only thing on his mind. He said he just wanted to go attend the funeral, but I think he'd rather exact his revenge. He and the townspeople go way back. He told me that, when he was, like, little, they put him in a cage and beat him. For someone who's so happy all the time, I think he's actually pretty messed up deep down. He's a good person, but he's messed up." Kitty said, a tear escaping her eye. Milani put her arm around Kitty's shoulders and shushed her quietly, just the way a real sister would, and both of them sat quietly, watching the sun set, knowing somewhere in the world, Kurt was out there.

Kurt stretched his cramped legs and tail as the rumble of the engines started fading and the noise of feet started growing above his head. The hatch in the belly of the plane opened, and _Flughafen_ workers started unloading the luggage. Kurt poked his head around a big green suitcase and fixed his eyes on the luggage cart. _Bamf_! He was in. Now all he had to do was wait until they got to the building, switch his inducer on, and get to the town . . .

Kurt had managed to stow away several more times on trucks heading east, in the general direction of where Kurt was headed. As the truck rumbled to a stop, Kurt teleported out and saw the jagged horizon of a town within walking distance. He galloped along the road on four legs, sticking to the trees and shadows. He ran by a sign welcoming travelers to Porthensburg,[3] Kurt's hometown. At the edge of the _Fuβgängerzone_, or pedestrian zone that was the old downtown, Kurt switched on his image inducer and strolled down the streets, lit by the streetlamps, as it was now dark.

He passed several pubs that were in full swing, the warmth, light, and contented chatter trying to lure him inside. The boy ignored everything until he reached _Ernst-Schwendler Straβe_, and turned down there to number 6. He knocked quickly on the door, which was opened by a disheveled-looking Jimaine.

,,Hallo, wer sind Sie? Warte . . . Kurt? Warum bist du hier?" 'Oh, hello, who are you? Wait . . . Kurt? Why are you here?' Jimaine asked, shaking her head. Her pale gold hair had not been put up and it hung loose around her shoulders. Her eyes were slightly red and there was an absence of energy around her, both magical and normal.

,,Ich habe gekommen weil ich will Margali ein Zeit mehr sehen." 'I came because I want to see Margali one last time.' Kurt said, looking up and down the street. ,,Darf ich rein kommen?" 'May I come in?'

,,Oh, ja . . . " 'Oh, yeah . . .' Jimaine said, and stood aside to let Kurt into the small apartment.

,,Wo ist Stefan?" 'Where's Stefan?' Kurt asked, switching his image inducer off and facing Jimaine again with an almost businesslike briskness.

,,Er ist aus, in das Pub." 'He's out, at the pub.' Jimaine replied, an edge of suspicion creeping into her voice. ,,Warum willst du wissen?" 'Why do you want to know?'

,,Eh, er ist mein Bruder. So wo ist Margali?" 'Eh, he's my brother. So where's Margali?' Kurt said, keeping the businesslike manner.

,,Da wird kein Korper verlassen hinterher die brennend. Die Beerdigung ist morgen." 'There was no body left after the burning. The funeral's tomorrow.' Jimaine said, starting to cry. Kurt left behind all the stiffness and went to comfort his sister.

,,Leise, es werd okay sein," 'Shh, it's going to be okay,' Kurt said tenderly, wrapping his arms around Jimaine, who clutched him and leaned her head into his shoulder.

,,Es fühlt wie ich allein bin ohne Mutti," 'It feels like I'm alone without Mom,' Jimaine sobbed into Kurt's shoulder. Kurt felt himself dissolving, close to tears.

,,Ich bin hier. Niemand sollen die Beerdigung ruineiren; nicht weil ich kann etwas sagen." 'I'm here. No one's going to ruin the funeral; not while I can say anything.' Kurt said, determination setting in his voice.

,,Danke, Kurt . . . ich liebe dich." 'Thanks, Kurt . . . I love you.' Jimaine said, squeezing her brother.

The door flew open just then, and Stefan, Kurt and Jimaine's brother, stepped in from the night. He took in his brother and sister standing there, Jimaine's face evidence of crying. He nodded his head solemnly to his brother, as if to say, "hello."

,,Ich war in das Pub, Das Silber Pferd, und ich habe leuten belauschen, und sie sagen das der Dämon, der Sohn die Zauberin, woll kommen und töd jemand wer hat Margali gebrennt. Warum wissen sie das? Ist das wirklich was du willst, Kurt?" 'I was in the pub, the Silver Horse, and I overheard some people, and they said that the demon, the son of the sorceress, will come and kill anyone who burned Margali. Why do they know that? Is that really what you want, Kurt?' Stefan asked, his mousy brown hair ruffled from the wind, and his eyes bright. There was no accusation in his voice, but the question was sharp.

,,Ich weiβ nicht wie sie wissen, aber ja, ich will Margali's Mördern töd." 'I don't know how they know, but yes, I want to kill Margali's murderers.' Kurt said levelly, raising his chin. Stefan kept staring at him, eyes hardening.

After a minute of this tense showdown, Stefan spoke again.

,,Dann all glück für dich. Du kannst hier schlafen für die Nacht." 'Then all luck for you. You can spend the night here.' Stefan said, eyes still hard, but tone softening as he smiled slightly, as if Kurt was only going to play soccer or something.

Jimaine, who had been silent, watching her brothers' exchange, suddenly pushed Kurt away and voiced her opinion.

,,Nein! Kurt, du kannst nicht leute töd! Und Stefan, nein, er kann nicht hier schlafen! Sie spinnen! Was denken sie, das es ein groβe Witz ist? Raus! Beide dich! Raus! Ich will nicht sie sehen für die Rast meine Leben!" 'No! Kurt, you can't just kill people! And Stefan, no, he can't sleep here! You're crazy! What do you think this is, a big joke? Out! Both of you! Out! I don't want to see you for the rest of my life!' Jimaine shouted, her tears redoubling. She pointed to the door angrily, and Kurt opened his mouth to protest, but Jimaine shook her head and pointed again to the door.

Both men had the door slammed on them, nearly catching Kurt's tail. Stefan looked at Kurt in amazement, and Kurt back.

,,Was ist los mit ihr? PMS oder was?" 'What's up with her? PMS or what?' Stefan muttered, starting to walk down the street. Kurt quickly switched his image inducer on again and caught up with his brother.

,,Sie ist aufgeregt. Sie hat zu mir gesagen das sie fühlt so allein ohne Margali," 'She's upset. She said to me that she feels so alone without Margali,' Kurt supplied. Stefan nodded as he walked.

,,Sie hat den gleiche ding zu mir gesagen." 'She said the same thing to me.'

The two walked down the street, keeping to the less populated section of town. Neither of them knew where they were going, and hoped when they came back, Jimaine would've calmed down and let them in, seeing as they had no place to spend the night.

Back at number 6, Jimaine slid down the wall to sit with her head on her knees.

,,Ich bin wirklich allein jetzt," 'Now I'm really alone,' she sobbed to herself. She felt a warm hand on her shoulder, and thought it was Kurt or Stefan, coming back to ask her to take what she had said back. She didn't pay attention to the fact that the door hadn't opened or closed. Jimaine ignored the hand on her shoulder, until it became unbearably hot. She looked up with hatred, expecting to see one of the men, but she saw nothing.

Jimaine yelped and cried and tried to scoot away from the hot hand, but she was frozen in terror. Another hand was placed on her other shoulder, and Jimaine still saw nothing, except the indents in her shirt caused by the weight of the hands.

,,Sind Sie ein Mutant?" 'Are you a mutant?' Jimaine asked shakily to the air. The hands moved off her shoulders and grabbed her wrists, hauling her to her feet. Jimaine struggled and tried to pry the invisible, unnaturally strong hands off her wrists, but didn't succeed. The hands started pulling her down the hall, and she tried to brace against anything, but the runner under her feet only slid. Jimaine screamed bloody murder, but the walls of the old apartment were thick, and nobody heard her.

When the hands had dragged her into the kitchen, one hand released and the cupboard by the stove flew open. Jimaine jumped and tried to pry the other hand off again. The flour sack ripped open all of a sudden and coated everything in a fine white powder. The sorceress closed her eyes, and when the dust had settled, opened them again, blinking the flour out of her eyelashes.

What Jimaine saw gave her the worst shock of her life.

**,,These quote marks" define when someone's speaking German, in case you can't tell by what they're saying. It's how the Germans do "these quote marks". **


	6. Pain

**Disclaimer: Alright, I'm caving and typing the dreaded words: ,,Ich besitze nicht die X-Men!" There. You just learned German.**

**A/N: Trisket's my other OC. Same notice with Milani.**

**Pain**

For all the mutants at the mansion, there was pain. In some way, shape, or form, there was definite hurt. Whether it be from Logan's training sessions, boyfriends and girlfriends breaking up, or Kurt leaving, they all felt it.

Over the period of time Kurt had been gone, two days, Milani and Kitty had become fast friends, and Kitty realized she couldn't pull a Kurt and become unreachable, withdrawn, and haunted. Kitty's door opened and closed silently, and Milani strolled in, unnoticed by Kitty until she tapped the girl on the shoulder. Kitty turned around suddenly and yelped when she saw no one there.

"Milani!" Kitty muttered, and Milani appeared smoothly, leaning against the wall with her hands in her jeans pockets.

"Just thought I'd come in. I was bored and Logan's on the warpath – Trisket couldn't handle her powers and put Scott in the infirmary. So how's life for you, lucky original X-Woman who only has training sessions once a month?" Milani asked, a smile reminiscent of Kurt playing on her face. She was trying her best to cheer Kitty up, and she thought it was working. Milani's family was unstable and quite awful to be around, and her adopted sister, Sasha, was vain and mean to her. However, she had come out quite cheerful. The Korean didn't know what Kitty's past was - she didn't talk about it, but Milani assumed it was pretty normal. Even though, Milani had always wanted a nice, caring sister, or someone like Kitty. She hoped Kitty felt the same way.

"Trisket? What does she do?" Kitty asked vaguely, not really hearing Milani's reply, staring out the window at the setting sun. Every night since Kurt had left, Kitty watched the sunset with rapt interest. It reminded her of how, in the summer, she and Kurt would normally sit together and watch the colors dance across the sky. Their first real conversation, and first kiss . . .

_It was summer, mid-July, two years before Kurt left. Kitty was lying out on the lawn in her pajamas, just lying there, apparently asleep. Kurt teleported out to her with a blanket to cover her up. Nights got cold up here. As he started to put it over her, she sat up._

_"Hey Kurt. Whaddya doin' out here?" Kitty asked, eyeing the blanket._

_"I just zought . . ." Kurt trailed off, uncomfortable. Sure, he and Kitty knew each other, but Kurt didn't know if Kitty was okay with him . . . she had been the last resident at the Institute to accept his appearance._

_"Good. You actually thought." Kitty said, and Kurt couldn't tell if it was a friendly jibe or a stinging insult._

_"Vell, I just zought zat you'd get cold if you vere sleeping out here," Kurt finished, rubbing the back of his neck with nervousness. Kitty said nothing, and her face betrayed no emotion for a moment._

_"That's sweet." Kitty smiled up at him. "Cop a seat, you can watch the sunset perfectly from here."_

_Kurt was surprised by her sudden friendliness, and sat down cross-legged beside her. Kitty lay back down with her legs crossed comfortably and her hands behind her head. Her hair was spread around her face, like a dark halo. A few strands blew across her face, and without thinking, Kurt tucked them behind her ear._

_Kitty looked startled, but said nothing. Kurt was surprised himself. Why had he done that?_

_"Go on, get comfortable. No need to sit there like a statue all night," Kitty said, a slight edge to her voice. Kurt lay down in the soft grass beside her, putting his hands behind his head and making sure his tail was on the other side of him so it wouldn't annoy Kitty. He was very careful about these things because he didn't want to break the delicate acquaintance they had._

_The two watched as the last beams of the sun shot over the sky above them, striking the mansion and turning patches of it pure gold. The same color gold as Kurt's eyes, Kitty thought lazily. Did Kurt like her? Was that why he came out with the blanket, which was now crumpled and forgotten on his other side?_

_The sleep of the sun progressed quickly, the beams fading and colors flooding across the clouds, like a watercolor painting in motion. Kurt's arm was pressed up against Kitty's, and his velvety fur tickled her skin. He unconsciously switched his tail to the other side so it ended up occasionally flicking her calf. She actually didn't mind. _

_As the sun stained the sky pink and purple and the air chilled slightly, Kitty nudged closer to Kurt. Dark navy color blossomed over the sky, beating the hues of the sun back. With the darkness, stars dotted the sky, pinpricks of silver light. _

_From the clear sky, rain began falling gently. Kitty jumped up and grabbed the blanket, putting it over her head. Kurt smiled at her, the rain running off his fur._

_"Never been out in ze rain at night, Kätzchen?" The first time Kurt called her Kätzchen._

_"It's exhilarating," he said, standing up and holding out his hand for Kitty to take. She looked at it for a moment, then took it. Kurt pulled her up and the rain continued, splashing off their bodies and the grass. Kitty caught the infectious atmosphere of the rain, an air of breaking rules and daring summer romance._

_Kitty smiled hugely and cartwheeled away from Kurt. He laughed and flipped a couple times. The girl huffed playfully and did a roundoff to a front handspring to try to top the German's flips. _

_"You're teasing me, Kätzchen!" Kurt called and got a good run up before doing a double flip, two revolutions in the air without his feet touching the ground. He landed, gold eyes gleaming, fur black and slicked with rain. The rain flattened his fur against his skin, detailing the planes of his muscles through his thin shirt. His fur didn't give him credit, Kitty thought. _

_Kitty ran up to Kurt and pushed him backwards. He caught himself and executed a back walkover, his tail following in a wide arc. He straightened up and his eyes glinted mischievously._

_He grabbed Kitty's hand and pulled her to him so she spun on the wet grass, landing against his chest. She looked up into his eyes, then pushed away from him, releasing his hand and spinning, arms outstretched, head turned toward the rain, eyes closed with the joyous feeling of warm rain._

_Kurt stood and watched the beauty, Kitty, spin, her dark, wet hair whipping around behind her as she skipped across the lawn, tempting Kurt to follow in the unknown, exotic steps of their dance . _

_He smiled madly and stretched his arms out, spinning slowly as he caught raindrops on his tongue. He closed his eyes and let the rain wash over him. _

_Kitty stopped spinning and laughed, giddy and dizzy from spinning. She caught sight of Kurt spinning and laughed harder, stumbling over to him. Just as she was about to push him backwards again, and hopefully catch him off-guard, he stopped spinning and pushed Kitty backwards. _

_The girl stopped laughing as she fell onto the wet grass, and lifted her eyes to Kurt, who looked as if he was sorry he pushed her. After a few moments like this, the two burst out laughing, and Kurt lay down beside her again. Kitty rolled onto her side, and so did Kurt. They stopped laughing, but kept smiling. _

_The way Kitty went after Kurt could be called an attack, but Kurt didn't think so; at least, not at that moment. She almost lunged at him, her hands flying to cup his cheeks as her lips landed half on his. She pulled back quickly and looked embarrassed._

_Kurt didn't need to say anything to make Kitty giggle and blush; the amused look in his eyes was enough. Kurt smiled, wrapping his tail around her ankle. They were laughing in great spirits when Logan came running up to them._

_"Whaddya think you're doin' out here in the rain? Get inside right now!" Shadowcat and Nightcrawler stood, looking rightfully embarrassed, but holding hands. The magic of the summer rain romance had worn off the split second Logan had yelled at them, so now the rain was just wet and cold._

_However, they smiled at each other maddeningly as Logan marched them inside. They would never forget that moment._

"Kitty? You look lost in something." Milani said, bringing Kitty back to reality. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes.

"Sorry . . . just remembering . . ." Kitty muttered. She looked at the window. Night had fallen and the sky was deep and dark, dotted by ageless stars.

"What about?" the other girl asked, just out of interest.

"Oh, something you won't hear about anytime soon," Kitty said teasingly. Milani grimaced at her. Milani, like everybody, had natural curiosity, and it didn't help when Kitty was acting this secretive.

"Sisters don't keep secrets," Milani warned. Kitty rolled her eyes.

"Milani . . ." Kitty sighed, "sisters don't share _everything_ . . . and we're not sisters, we're too . . . . different."

"You're so dumb, Kitty!" Milani said with humor, "Who cares if we're different?" I mean, my sister's from Russia. I'm adopted," Milani added to explain. Kitty nodded. Milani opened her mouth to say more about her family, but decided she didn't want to burden Kitty with her problems, and closed it quickly. Kitty wasn't stupid, and caught that Milani wanted to say something.

"What?" Kitty asked. Milani shook her head. Kitty narrowed her eyes. "C'mon, Milani. You're the one who was just saying sisters don't keep secrets,"

"It's about my family. I've never told anyone. I don't like to think about them. My adoptive parents were racist, so they clearly favored Sasha over me. My adoptive father was really mean. He didn't beat me or anything like that, he was just mean. He treated me like I was worse than beautiful, Russian, _Sasha_ . . . But even he was better than my mother. She doesn't deserve to call herself my mother. She was absolutely horrible. She would make me do all my chores, and Sasha's, and more after that. She said that yellow-skinned people, people from Asia, were inferior to white Europeans, especially Russians, like she and my adopted father and Sasha were." Milani explained, setting her jaw, holding back a sob.

"Then why on God's green earth did she, like, adopt you?" Kitty demanded, brow furrowed. She was angry at Milani's "mother," not Milani.

"Sasha wanted a sister, a friend to play with. My adoptive parents couldn't have another child, physically, so they went to the orphanage. I was the only girl there at the time. I don't know why my biological parents gave me up, but they did, to an orphanage in _Russia_, of all places. Apparently, they said that the adoption agency should only let someone adopt me if they kept my given name: _Milan Sweet Blossom Ko_. They picked that name for me when they visited Milan, Italy, and fell in love with it. Anyways, what sort of name is that? It sounds like the name you'd give to a show horse or dog." Milani spat.

"I just can't figure out why they would, like, drop you off with a weird name in, like, a strange, faraway country for them." Kitty frowned. Milani looked on.

"But my adoptive parents ignored my real parents' request to name me Milan, but Sasha thought the name Milan was exotic. My fake parents would do _anything_ for their dear, sweet Sasha," Milani hissed bitterly, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. "So when Sasha said she wanted me to be named Milan, her parents were happy to oblige. Except, Sasha wasn't old enough to like a plain name, like Milan, so she had to have a name with 'flair,' or a name like 'Milani.' I hated it, but Sasha's parents forced me to respond to it. So here I am, as Milani 'Milan Sweet Blossom' Ko."

"Wow," Kitty said. "You must've really hated your life before you came here,"

"Yeah. No duh. But now I'm so happy I have a friend like you, Kitty. You're like the sister I never had," Milani said, and this time, instead of Kitty leaning on Milani's shoulder, Milani leaned on Kitty's shoulder, and sobbed. Kitty hugged her tightly and held her head tight.

Eventually, Kitty's mind drifted from Milani's family to Kurt's family. Not many people knew, but Mystique _had _survived the night of Kurt's birth, but only barely. She managed to flee from Germany to the US, to start the Brotherhood, but nobody knew where she went when she was gone for those long periods of time. But that was irrelevant to Kurt's twisted childhood, a childhood Kurt himself didn't know much about. The only people that knew fully were the Professor, and Logan, whom the Professor had told. The reason Professor X knew was when Kurt had been having nightmares, the Professor dove into his mind to find the root of the problems.

Usually, Kurt's nightmares involved blinding light, hot hands holding him, and strange, unforgettable pain. Kurt himself never knew, but the Professor unlocked some hidden memories and pieced together what happened. After that, he had confided in Logan what had happened, and the gruff instructor had sworn he would take the secret to his grave.

Kitty, Scott, and Jean knew the two men were hiding something deep and dark about Kurt's past, but they didn't push the subject. How often Kitty had sat in her room, wondering about Kurt's shadowed past, and how would someone recover from something like that? She had consulted the Professor, and they agreed that Kurt's boisterous spirit was probably a coping mechanism that had turned into habit until the bad memories had all but faded. Soon, Milani had finished crying and dried her eyes, and sat up from Kitty's shoulder. She had just been saying something, but Kitty didn't hear.

"Kitty? What's up? You remembering something again?" Milani asked. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"More like a silver dollar the way they're going," Kitty mumbled, looking at Milani.

"I'd be willing to pay," Milani said.

"Well, I was thinking about the first time we – Kurt and me – kissed. Just a second ago, though, I was thinking about, like, Kurt's past." Kitty said, almost lapsing back into her first-kiss memory.

"Kurt's past?" the Korean asked with more excitement.

"Yeah. Nobody – except for the Professor and Logan – really knows where or how he came, but all we know is that it's not, like, a fairy tale." Kitty began. Milani observed a respectful silence that gently prodded Kitty to go on. "So we know he was born somewhere in Bavaria. He's never said for sure. His real mother's Mystique. He knows that somehow, but we don't, like, know how. Mystique's been gone for years. She shows up at the Brotherhood occasionally, but other than that, we don't see her.

"So he lived with his foster mother, Margali, and her two kids, Jimaine and Stefan, for, like, his whole life and considers Margali his mother. I got to meet Jimaine one time, and she's nice. She only speaks German, so Kurt had to translate, but she was still, like, nice.

"He, like, worked for the circus as an acrobat, and that's, like, all I know. I guess it's kind of sad that nobody really knows, but that's the way it, like, goes sometimes, right?" Kitty said. Milani nodded in agreement. There was a pause.

"So who's Mystique?" Milani asked finally.

"Oh. She's another mutant, a shape shifter. She was with Magneto for a little while, then she broke off and formed her own group called the Brotherhood. She checks in on them, like, once every year. We haven't seen her so far, but we know she's coming back soon." Kitty said.

"Hey guys, it's time for dinner." Scott knocked and opened the door enough to poke his head in and announce dinner, and see Kitty and Milani sitting and talking.

"Right. See you downstairs." Milani replied as Scott shut the door behind him.

"Express route," Kitty smiled before grabbing Milani's arm and phasing her down to the Library where she could go out into the dining room. Kitty followed after making a mental plea to the Powers That Be.

_Please if you're, like, actually there, make sure wherever Kurt is he's safe. Make sure he's safe and happy. Also, tell Milani's foster parents that they can go rot in hell for eternity for all I care. Just please . . . if you can do that for me . . . please._

Kitty opened her eyes and phased through the floor to the Library to go to dinner, not that she was really hungry, but she enjoyed the chatter. The brunette sat close to the middle of the table, next to the empty chair that was Kurt's.

"Hey Kitty, pass the potatoes," Evan asked from further down. Kitty handed him the tureen of mashed potatoes and took a few carrots from the dish in front of Kurt's plate. All around her, people were talking loudly and raucously, unaffected by Kurt's absence. She leaned back and munched on a carrot, listening to what other had to say.

". . . it was a great flip, I mean—"

"-the frickin' garbage can!"

"- randomly throws this drawing, I mean how immature?"

"- one girl with this awful attitude—"

". . . I couldn't control it, I'm sorry, Scott,"

Kitty leaned forward at this. That must be Trisket. She looked down the table and thought Rahne had a twin. Trisket looked amazingly like Rahne – the same red hair, granted, Trisket's was longer and not in pigtails, the same sort of face, but Rahne had more freckles. Just slight differences, but they did look very similar.

"It's okay, Trisket. I'm fine now. Jean had the same problem when she came here – maybe not that bad, but the same problem." Scott was saying across the table to Trisket, Jean nodding as she put chicken on her plate. So if Trisket had the same problems Jean had, that meant the Institute had another telepath on its hands. Interesting.

The rest of dinner sidled off and as the mutants finished, they retreated to various places like the kitchen, to help Ororo with the dishes, the rec. room to watch TV or just chill, or even back to their rooms for more peace and quiet. Kitty went back up to her room, and Milani came in with some stolen cupcakes.

"What Ororo doesn't know, won't hurt her," Milani smiled as they laughed and ate the cupcakes.

XXX

_Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn_. Kurt remembered that line from somewhere as he sat outside a little coffeeshop with Stefan. He had used some of his "stealth skills," as he liked to call them, to steal some clothes. Kurt knew it was wrong, but if Jimaine wasn't letting them in, they had to resort to other measures. Come to think of it, where _was_ Jimaine? Kurt and Stefan hadn't seen her around town for several days now, which was odd. Could something be wrong?

_The sorceress girl closed her eyes, and when the dust had settled, opened them again, blinking the flour out of her eyelashes. _

_What Jimaine saw gave her the worst shock of her life._

. . . present day . . .

Jimaine's life had changed in a matter of seconds. One ripped bag of flour, one apparition, one message. After the flour had been ripped open and settled on everything, Jimaine saw what had been holding her, and she didn't like it one bit.

_Jimaine stared down at the hand, which was now visible with the white flour, and followed the arm up to the shoulder. Her eyes moved of their own accord, picking out individual body parts instead of the being as a whole. When she finally noticed it was the semblance of a woman standing there, she fought the hand off her wrist and stumbled backwards into the old table in the kitchen._

_,,Wer sind Sie? Warum sind Sie hier?" 'Who are you? Why are you here?' Jimaine shouted, the anger in her voice covering the fear. The ghost woman shook her head sadly. Jimaine looked at her face in more detail – not that there was any detail left. She had been horribly burned, and her face was grotesquely twisted, the skin melted and charred. She assumed the areas where the flour settled more thickly were areas of dark skin and clothing. The woman's hair and dress were silent, flour-white flames, but the arms and hands were unmarked, as if she had been holding them out of the flames when she died._

_Ghosts appear the way they were when they died, and Jimaine knew that by the flames and horrible burns she had been burned to death. Her mind was working sluggishly with the grief for her mother and the horror of this ghost, but it was working nonetheless. _

_,,Mutti? Margali? Ist das wirklich du?" 'Mom? Margali? Is that really you?' Jimaine asked in quiet astonishment. The ghost woman stood watching her silently for a moment, then shook her head again, the white flames flickering._

_,,Dann wer sind Sie? Erklär mal!" 'Then who are you? Explain!' Jimaine shouted at the ghost again, tears cutting tracks through the coating of flour on her face. The ghost did nothing, as if thinking. This wasn't good enough for Jimaine. She lunged at the ghost and stood right in its face._

_,,Gib mir ein antwort!" 'Give me an answer!' Jimaine said loudly. The ghost watched her with cold consideration, then raised one hand. Jimaine watched the hand out of the corner of her eye, but was not expecting it when it slapped her across the face, causing renewed tears of pain to spring to her eyes. Jimaine sank to her knees and looked up at the ghost. _

_The ghost still watched her with cold, almost unseeing white eyes. The two women, dead and living, were locked in a battle of wills, with the ghost woman winning. She raised her hand again and Jimaine flinched, expecting another stinging slap, and recoiled slightly when the surprisingly warm fingertips whispered over her cheek where she had been slapped._

_,,Verzeihen Sie mir, Frau." 'Forgive me, woman.' Jimaine said quietly. The ghost nodded and turned toward the floured window above the sink. Her finger traced out 17 words:_

_Ich bin Mystique._

_Ich komme mit eine Warnung._

_Seien Sie vorsicht von der Teufel du denkt ist dein Freund._

_Jimaine mouthed the words silently as the ghost woman, Mystique, traced out the words. In English, they meant "I am Mystique. I come with a warning. Beware the Devil you think is your friend."_

_,,Was meinst das?" 'What does that mean?' Jimaine asked. Mystique shook her head as the windows blew open and the flour was whipped off all the surfaces, disappearing as it left its resting place._

_,,Nein! Komm zuruck!" 'No! Come back!' Jimaine pleaded. She distinctly felt warm fingertips brush across her cheek, down her neck and through her hair. She went to grab the hand, but there was nothing there._

_,,Nein, bitte, bitte, komm zuruck, Frau . . ." 'No, please, please, come back, woman . . .' Jimaine murmured, her head dropping to her chest and tears fell once more. Through her tear-clouded eyes, Jimaine managed to see a slight white smudge on the floor. She raised a heavy hand to brush the remaining flour smudge off the worn wooden floorboards. Jimaine's fingers brushed at the mark, but it didn't come off. The sorceress wiped her eyes with the side of her hand and peered at the mark. It was a little white heart, right where the ghost had been standing._

_Jimaine gave a watery giggle and lay on her side, her thumb over the little heart. That night, she fell asleep like that, no dreams gracing her weary mind._

Jimaine had stayed in the kitchen over the next few days, hoping Mystique, the ghost woman, would come back, but she never did. The sorceress had tried using her mother's old séance things to contact her or Margali, but it wasn't working. Jimaine's grief had drained and sapped her magical energy.

XXX

,,Sollen wir zuruck zu Jimaine gehen?" 'Should we go back to Jimaine?' Kurt asked Stefan as they left their spot in front of the coffeeshop for a less open and public place.

,,Sie hat gesagen dass sie für den Rast seine Leben uns nicht sehen will," 'She said she didn't want to see us for the rest of her life,' Stefan said moodily, jamming his hands into his pockets.

,,Ja," Kurt agreed. His instincts were becoming restless, prodding him to get on with it.

_I'm working on it,_ Kurt consoled himself, _I just need more time to think, to plan . . ._


	7. Desire

**Disclaimer: standard procedure.**

**A/N: the plot twist shall be explained, all in good time. Oh, and sorry about Jimaine's accent. It's quite thick. She hasn't really learned or spoken English like Kurt, so it only makes sense to make her accent thicker. If you don't get it, try saying it out loud.**

**Desire**

Kitty didn't bother packing her suitcase. Not like she was going on a vacation, anyway. Behind her, her alarm clock beeped once as the time turned to 8:00pm, and Kitty was reminded of the fact she had to be ready for school the next day.

The girl was rather annoyed by the fact she had to wait for school to get out to go to Germany after Nightcrawler. She was wasting time. Kurt could already have caused major damage, and Kitty was still here in America, letting him get away with murder, or whatever-the-hell-else he was going to do.

Kitty, bored and with nothing constructive to do, phased down to the kitchen, one of hers and Kurt's favorite haunts. Just as Kitty was sweeping her hand through the air to check for Milani, the phone rang, making her nearly jump onto the table with surprise.

She approached the phone cautiously, as if it were going to explode at any moment. She picked up the receiver and hesitantly addressed the person on the line.

"Hello?"

"Hallo? Eez zis ze Zavier Eenstitute?" A very, very, heavily accented German voice asked.

"Who's calling?" Kitty asked. She didn't know the voice, but she knew it wasn't Kurt. Kurt didn't have a female voice.

"Ah, zis eez Jimaine Szardos. Kurt's seester."

Kitty fell silent.

"Kurt's . . . sister?"

"Ja. Und you are . . .?"

"Kitty, his friend."

"_Freundin_?" Jimaine asked, astounded. Kitty had no idea what she said.

"Um, I didn't quite understand that,"

"Sorry. _Freundin_ means gerlfriend een German,"

"I am not—" Kitty started to say indignantly, but was cut off.

"Ven ze gerls say zat, eet just proves zat zey are, or zat zey vant to be." Jimaine said levelly. Kitty huffed through the phone.

"So why did you call?"

"I vanted to talk to you about somezing zat happened to me ze ozzer night,"

"You're a sorceress, if I'm, like, right. I'm a mutant, so why would _I_ be able to help you?"

"Just leesten to me. Ze ozzer night, a ghost came to me," Jimaine said, pronouncing the 'h' in 'ghost,' which Kitty found funny. "Und she said zat she vas ze ghost ov a voman named 'Mystique.' I heard Kurt mention zat name a few times ven I came over to ze _Vereinigsten Staatenn_. Hvoo his zis Mystique lady?"

"Um, well, that's scary. Mystique, like, can't be dead. No way. She comes to the Brotherhood, like, every few months, but we haven't, like, seen her for a while . . ." Kitty said, rubbing the back of her neck in anxiety.

"Precizely. You have not seen her for a vile. Venn I saw her, she vas on fire. Does zat mean nozing to you?"

"It's 'does that mean something', not – whatever. You said she was, like, on fire?"

"Ja, flames all over her, on her hair und dress, zough her arms und hands vere unmahrked, as zough she held zem clear of ze flames."

"That's really, like, weird. Who would burn Mystique to death . . .?" Kitty mused.

"Ze townspeople. Zey _hasse_ – hate – mutants, zat und zorceressez, like Margali vas – like I am." Jimaine said with bitterness.

"So what was Mystique doing back in Germany?"

"Don't ask me! She appeared to me und said, '_Seien Sie der Teufel du vorsichtig ist dein Freund._' Eet means, 'Beware ze Devil hvoo you zink is your friend.' I don't know vat it means. Do you?"

"Devil? Devil, devil, devil . . . Do you think it could mean, like, demon?" Kitty mused.

"_Dämon_? Vy vould it mean demon? Ze message she vrote said very cleahrly _Teufel_, Devil."

"I said that because Kurt looks like a demon . . ."

"Nein! I know vere you're going mit zis, und Kurt vould never tu—" Jimaine stopped.

"What?"

"Vell, ven Kurt came to me, he said he vould kill all Margali's murders. Zat's vat Mystique's message could mean. Kurt might turn on . . . us?" Jimaine finished slowly.

"If that's what the message said,"

"Ja."

"I have to cut school!" Kitty said quickly. Logan walked into the kitchen and saw Kitty on the phone.

"Half-pint, no way you're cuttin' school!" he growled. "Who's on the line?"

"I'm sorry, Jimaine, someone's interrupting me. I'll get the next flight I can to Munich. Goodbye." Kitty said coldly, more for Logan's benefit than Jimaine's. She hung up the phone and stared at Logan.

"Who's this Jimaine?" That was all he could say. Kitty was ticked.

"_Jimaine_, FYI, is Kurt's _sister_. _Kurt _showed up in town, and said he was going to _kill_ people. _I _am leaving for _Munich_, and _nobody_, not even _you_, is going to stop me. I'm sixteen years old and I have a _right_ to go stop my best friend from becoming a murderer." Kitty turned and phased through the wall in a huff, leaving Logan standing slightly bewildered in the kitchen, wondering what he had done to get Kitty so upset. Then it hit him. Kurt was going to kill people?

"Half-pint! Get back here! It's too dangerous for you!" Logan yelled, running out of the kitchen up the stairs to Kitty's room. He pounded on the door, having to wait an agonizing second before Kitty opened the door, feigning surprise.

"Oh hi, Logan,"

"What did you say in the kitchen? About Kurt?"

"Oh, he's angry and he wants to kill people," Kitty said, acting as if this was a lighthearted conversation just to annoy Logan.

"What else did ya say?"

"I'm cutting school and going to Munich to stop him,"

"_And_?"

"Mystique showed up as a ghost to Jimaine and said Kurt would turn on her." This last statement caught Logan in the gut.

"What?" he gasped in disbelief.

"Mystique was burned to death like Margali, and she showed up to Jimaine and gave her a message that said, more or less, that Kurt would turn on her." Kitty started glowering again.

"The _hell_ is that elf up to?"


	8. Predator

**Disclaimer: do I really have to?**

**Predator**

Logan had been cleared by the Professor to go to Germany. Kitty had worked on Logan, whining and pleading and wheedling and shouting and stomping, claiming her right to help her best friend. Logan had declared that it was far too dangerous for Kitty, making her incensed and say that Kurt was not a wild animal to be held on the end of a forty-foot pole, he was a person who needed help. Their argument was furious and epic, but in the end, Kitty won out and was cleared to go to Germany with Logan, albeit reluctantly. There was a flight leaving the next morning, but that wasn't good enough for Kitty. Kurt needed help _now_, she thought. By her advice (more like command), they were taking the express route: the X-Jet.

XXX

Kurt's mind persisted with the furious itch to avenge:

_When will you go? When will you rip, rip and tear soft bodies? When will you kill, kill those monsters? How many will you kill? Will you not stop until the village runs with rivers of blood and no man stands? Why don't you strike now?_

The last question wasn't a question so much as a demand. Kurt barely managed to appear more human on the outside, but on the inside, he was an animal, hungry for blood, waiting impatiently for the moon to cloud over and the prey to wander to his grasp.

He'd waited days for this, but something in him had told him it wasn't the right time. That little clock inside him was counting down, hands winding into the red shadows of Kill Hour.

As the hours to dusk wore on and Stefan and Kurt traced the path to Jimaine's house, he grew more agitated, jumping at every noise and glaring at passers-by until, finally, a block from the apartment, he switched off his image inducer. Nobody but Stefan was there to see him, but if there had been people, Kurt couldn't have cared less.

,,Jimaine! Offnet die Tür! Jetzt!" 'Jimaine! Open this door! Now!' Kurt yelled as he hammered on the door. Jimaine opened the door and glared at Kurt with mingled hatred, suspicion and fear.

,,Ich glaube dass ich gesagen dass—" 'I thought I said that—' Jimaine started to say, but was cut off by Kurt pushing past her into the house. He dashed up the staircase, taking the steps three at a time. Jimaine and Stefan ran after him. They found him in his old room, rifling through the drawers in the dusty dresser.

,,Kurt! Was tüst du?" 'Kurt! What are you doing?' Stefan asked, but Kurt looked up with something in his eyes that made Stefan stumble backwards into Jimaine. He pulled a dark bundle, bared his teeth at the siblings, and vanished with a cloud of black smoke.

,,Die Leute war rechts," 'The people were right,' Stefan looked down to Jimaine, a statement he would've viewed as traitourous his whole life, he now considered truth: ,,Er _ist_ ein Dämon." 'He _is_ a demon.'

Logan steered the jet into a landing in a clearing in the forest outside Porthensburg. Just before the jet was about to touch down, though, he jerked sharply on the steering column, causing Kitty to slide off her seat into the wall.

"Half-pint! Get up here!" Logan shouted. Kitty ran to the cockpit and looked out the window, following Logan's line of sight. There was a dark figure at the edge of the clearing. Kitty squinted and gasped. Indigo hair whipping around his face, tail lashing, eyes murderous; it was Kurt. He was wearing a skintight navy shirt and loose black sweatpants that helped his fur with blending into shadows. He bared his teeth at the jet and vanished.

"That's _not_ good," Kitty said softly.

"I'll say. He looks ready to kill someone," Logan said, pushing Kitty into the copilot seat and landing the jet. The two disembarked and looked around for possible signs of where Kurt could have gone, but it was useless. You can't track a teleporter if they don't want to be tracked.

"Logan – sorry, Wolverine, let's go to the town. We might find him there. Or at least, we'll find Jimaine." Kitty suggested. She knew Wolverine's sense of smell would lead them to the town. They were on a mission, so they weren't Kitty and Logan anymore, they were Shadowcat and Wolverine. And Kurt was the enemy.

**Short chapter, I know. Keep reading! I'm just loving typing this almost **_**too**_** much. I agree with what Shadow said on **_**Blood Passion**_** – "I enjoy writing about animalistic Kurt." Ditto!**


	9. The Hunt

**Disclaimer: I don't want to write a disclaimer! I want to write a story!**

**The Hunt**

The Festhall was actually quite busy, what with the coming of the Summerfest, and that's where Kurt wanted to be. The Festhall. He teleported up inside the rafters, crouched on one of the thick old oak beams, watching the people going around the hall. He swished his tail and thought. How would it go? Would someone try to escape? Whatever. He didn't care. More importantly, _Nightcrawler_ didn't care.

,,Heu heu, ich bin Heim," 'Hey hey, I'm home,' Nightcrawler growled, low and dangerous. The growl permeated the hall, echoing off the stone. The people stopped dead and looked around wildly, searching for the speaker.

Nightcrawler swung around the beam and dropped down onto one of the fest tables. The people screamed as he landed, his golden eyes dark and determined. From the edge of his eyes, the gold started darkening. Turning to black and back to a deep, shimmering crimson. His pupils remained pure white.

,,_Es ist der Teufel_!" '_It's the Devil_!' one lady screamed.

Nightcrawler bared his fangs and leapt at her.

Shadowcat sprinted after Wolverine, who was barreling toward the small German town of Porthensburg. Everything was quiet and dusk was transitioning to night. The full moon made itself known around the summer leaves of the trees, bathing the path to the town in silver. It was like a postcard when the two X-Men arrived at the edge of the street.

Shadowcat's ears didn't pick it up, but Wolverine's ears did. Terrified screams. The acrid, sharp scent of blood.

"Dammit!" Wolverine shouted, taking off down the street and rounding the corner to the brightly lit and inviting Festhall.

The two burst in and met a gruesome scene: bodies littered the ground. All of them had terrified expressions on their faces. Many of them had their throats ripped out and necks bitten repeated times by sharp, long fangs. Blood touched the edges Shadowcat's and Wolverine's feet, making their boots sticky. Shadowcat vomited in revulsion, tears pouring down her cheeks, clutching her stomach. This was incomprehensible terrible. A movement in the opposite corner of the Festhall caught their attention. A young boy, no older than eight, ran out of the shadows.

His eyes were the size of saucers and his mouth was open in a silent scream of horror and agony. He fell to the ground, clutching his throat. Shadowcat ran through all the tables to reach him, phasing through bodies and resisting the need to vomit again, or run out of the massacre site and forget she'd ever experienced that. She looked down and saw his throat had been ripped clean out. Shadowcat stifled a sob and put a hand over her nose to try to block out the scent of death: blood and urine. Shadowcat backed away from the boy's corpse, not daring to turn around, but stumbling quickly towards Wolverine. A dark figure, fleet as the wind whipping through the open doors of the Festhall, followed Shadowcat, moving towards the boy. It leaped onto the body and fastened sharp fangs on the boy's neck.

Shadowcat loosed a hair-raising, blood-curdling shriek as the figure turned around. Glowing crimson eyes the color of the blood dripping off the fangs met her eyes. The creature that had taken over Kurt opened its mouth and showed off fangs worthy of a tiger. Shadowcat started panting and sobbing in fear as the creature approached her, tail lashing.

She heard Wolverine running towards her, shouting incoherently, just before sharp pain knifed through her head and neck as her world went black.

_Eyes open and take in the world around them. Thick woods. In the distance, black smoke billows. Many of the trees are charred, the leaves black. Everything's disorienting. Shaking its heavy head, the entity stands and sways slightly before coming to balance. There's a loud growling behind it and it stumbles, taking off in fear, weaving through the trees as the ground shakes and the growling gains._

_The entity gallops, and out in its peripheral vision, the black trunks sweep past. The entity is running into the smoke. It begins to get hazy and now several trees have fallen. Some are on fire. _

_,,Kleine Pferd, du sollst nicht rennen," 'Little horse, you shouldn't run,' a low voice speaks close behind the horse. More things are on fire, the crimson and gold of the flames contrasting starkly to the black and white cinders falling like deathly snow. _

_The horse's hooves tear the ground, lashing out and leaving great gouges where the iron rips the cindered ground as it flies through the ghost forest, ripping and shattering the silence and leaving pure panic in its wake. _

_The horse's breath comes in sharp pants as the stench of smoke fills its nostrils and lungs, its heart beating out a frenzied tattoo. The forest cuts off very suddenly, but the horse keeps galloping out into the plain, littered with fallen, ashen logs. A deserted building stands flaming magnificently out in the distance of this strange world, in shades of black and grey, gilded with the sharp pricks of ruby and gold. _

_The horse wheels around and rears, hooves pawing the air as the awesome heat of the bonfire of the building in the distance envelops it. There's a keening, wailing scream from inside the flames and all of a sudden—_

_**BOOM!**_

The sonic boom shattered Porthensburg and burst Shadowcat's eardrums. She didn't even hear herself scream, but felt the blood on the sides of her head, and the overwhelming, suffocating silence, accompanied by sharp, unreachable pain in her head. Fire rained from the sky. She staggered up from her spot, on the cold cobbles of the street, and ran dizzily for cover. A burning post streaked down her back, searing her skin and causing her to fall to her knees, hands over her ears, screaming.

Hands grabbed her shoulders and hauled her up, pushing her to safety. Shadowcat didn't see who or where her savior was taking her, her eyes were clouded with tears of pain. The same hands that rescued her slapped her face, making her blink away tears and look up into the ash-streaked and concerned face of Wolverine.

He said something. Shadowcat didn't hear.

"I can't hear you," she said. Wolverine looked concerned. He shook his head, then pointed to his lips.

"_Read – my – lips_." He mouthed. Shadowcat nodded.

"_The – Festhall – blew – up - Kurt – was –inside – the – blast – deafened – you. I – healed – quickly – so – I'm – not - deaf._" Shadowcat again nodded. Her eyes teared up again as she thought of Kurt. Wolverine whirled around suddenly and a look of fear flitted across his face, to be replaced with a mask of anger. He stood and Shadowcat saw him unsheathe his adamantium claws. He gestured angrily.

The same shadow that had killed the boy in the hall leapt onto Wolverine's chest. He staggered back and stabbed wildly with his claws. Every time he was about to make contact with the shadow's form, it disappeared. The shadow left, and Wolverine swayed on the spot before turning slowly to Kitty. Blood stained the whole front of his uniform and there was a dazed look on his face. His throat was torn out. Shadowcat screamed again, scrambling backwards, the all-too-familiar wave of gorge and revulsion rising up in her.

She got up and ran blindly, flying through the streets. Bodies that hadn't been killed by the shadow were now burned and twisted beyond recognition by the explosion. She phased through them, running away from it all. The moon clouded over and the broken town became dark, lit only by the flickering light of the multiple fires. Shadowcat felt a whispering _something_ brush up against her leg and she dashed into the nearest apartment. The apartment was untouched by the explosion, but it was still very dark.

The girl blundered around in the darkness, hitting several things before phasing through everything. She phased right into a closet, and two somebodies – that were still alive.

,,Wer ist da?" 'Who's there?' A male voice asked in German. Shadowcat didn't hear. A hand touched Shadowcat's shoulder.

She shied away from the touch into the wall of the closet.

"Who are you?" Shadowcat asked quickly.

,,Das ist die Mädchen we rich habe umgesprochen! Eh, eh, Kurt's Freundin, ah . . . Kätzchen! Das ist ihr Name! Kätzchen!" 'That's the girl I was talking about! Eh, eh, Kurt's girlfriend, ah . . . Kitty! That's her name! Kitty!' A female German voice said, the speaker hitting the boy on the shoulder excitedly.

"Hello? I can't hear anything," Shadowcat said, putting her arms out and feeling the two people's shoulders.

,,Was? Was sagst sie?" 'What? What's she saying?' the boy asked.

,,Sie sagt dass sie nicht hören konnen, Stefan." 'She's saying that she can't hear, Stefan.' The girl explained.

,,Sie ist hier, so was sollen wir mit ihr tun, Jimaine?" 'She's here, so what should we do with her, Jimaine?' Stefan asked. Jimaine shrugged in the darkness. Shadowcat felt Jimaine shrug and was very confused.

"What's going on?" Shadowcat asked. She didn't hear the Germans reply. Shadowcat sat in the darkness for the longest time with the two, just sitting and wondering what she would hear if she could.

There was a sudden burst of pressure on all three's ears, splitting Kitty's head with the raw pain. The two Germans, Jimaine and Stefan, jumped and pressed into the wall.

,,Heu heu, ich bin Heim," 'Hey hey, I'm home,' the shadow crooned. Jimaine screamed. Kurt bared his fangs at them, but it was lost in the absolute darkness. Shadowcat was slightly aware something bad was happening, but only knew what when sharp fangs pierced her neck. Her scream of overwhelming, unending agony and bloody murder was never heard by anybody else.

Nightcrawler's fangs bit into Shadowcat's neck. The demon dug his teeth in, getting a good grip on the screaming, struggling, slapping girl. Putting up a fight was useless. The demon was so much stronger. As he was bracing himself to rip the girl's throat out, she disappeared. His teeth snapped together with such force, Nightcrawler's head hurt. He snarled in fury and turned on the other warm-bodied, fear-scented people. The animalistic and bloodthirsty mind made no distinction, no discrimination between his family and his enemies, just people it needed to kill.

Stefan was first. Nightcrawler enjoyed the tang of adrenaline in the man's blood. Stefan's corpse slumped against the wall of the closet, and Jimaine, terrified nearly to death, tried to repel Nightcrawler with magic. His bloodlust broke her charm easily, and he fastened his canines into her soft neck, oblivious to her screams of agony and terror. She rained blows with her fists on his head and neck, but he felt nothing but the hot, coppery taste of blood in his mouth.

Jimaine Szardos fell against the wall, eyes staring straight ahead, face frozen in her final moment of absolute horror and suffering. Nightcrawler moved on, teleporting out of the closet to kill the girl that had escaped him. As he galloped across the ruined streets, a motion caught his eye. Someone, one poor person who had escaped Nightcrawler's teeth for a few moments, staggered out of the shadows of a wrecked house.

Nightcrawler snarled at them and the figure twirled around to face him. In the dim light of one of the flickers of fire, Nightcrawler caught sight of the barrel of a shotgun aimed at him. He had less than half a second to think to teleport before the trigger was pulled. Milliseconds before the pellets hit the demon's body, it disappeared. The man who shot the gun looked around in amazement. Where was the demon? Nightcrawler reappeared on the man's shoulders and dispatched him quickly. The last townsperson, the last inhabitant of Porthenburg, lay dead under Nightcrawler's feet. His instincts' work was done, so they withdrew to their submissive, subconscious place in Kurt's mind, leaving his thought process standing frailly on its own, the winds of emotion threatening to topple him into insanity at any moment.

"Vat have I done?" Kurt whispered, horrified. Tears cascaded down his blood-caked fur, wracking sobs echoing off the empty, destroyed buildings. He spat the vile taste of the blood of so many innocent people out of his mouth and vomited. He could remember all the people he killed–oh, god. He had killed–never would he—he didn't. He did. He had killed Stefan and Jimaine. Kurt cried harder, if at all possible. He stumbled blindly through the town, tripping over the bodies and rubble until at last, he teleported to the last place on Earth he could be to himself.


	10. The Beginning of the End

**Disclaimer: you're smart enough to figure it out, aren't you?**

**A/N: There's going to be a lot of deviation from here on out, because I've decided to minimize the time P&F originally spent dealing with the AU of Dreamland, which I admit was a mistake on my part. I will be keeping about 50-75% of the original material in, because I can't stand taking it all out, seeing as I need my horse fix per story.**

**The Celestial Mare**

Shadowcat crawled to the base of the stairs and lay curled there, her hands clutching the hideous neck wound and sobbing quietly in the sooty, deaf darkness. The pain was almost overwhelming. She knew Kurt had bitten her, and she knew that Kurt had bitten the other two people in the closet. She knew Kurt had attacked Wolverine, killed that little boy in the Festhall, caused the explosion, and made the streets run with blood. Kurt was a killer. A demon. No denying it.

There are times when humans seem to draw on all their last reserves and something more to keep them clinging to life. This was one such time.

In the dark, suffocating closet, there was a spark of life. Thought dead by both Shadowcat and Kurt, Jimaine stirred and brought her hands to her neck and near collapsed into near-death again. Her neck was painfully raw and open, and there was rough dried blood around the edges of the wound. Jimaine managed to concentrate enough to just barely heal her neck and scoot over to Stefan's inert form.

,,Stefan . . . Stefan, bitte, aufwachen," 'Stefan . . . Stefan, please, wake up,' Jimaine whispered hoarsely. Jimaine picked up her brother's hand. It was slick with blood and ice cold. Jimaine's head dropped to her chest. She put her fingers on his neck, on an uninjured pulse point. She felt no pulse. Sighing with tears thick in her raw, new throat, Jimaine focused her magic on Stefan's wounds and healed them. She felt for a pulse again, but his neck was still.

,,Du, Dämon, was hast du tun!" 'You demon, what did you do!' Jimaine murmured, the overwhelming sadness sapping all emotion and energy from her voice though she cursed the hellish, inhuman creature she'd once called her brother. Under Jimaine's other hand, Stefan's fingers twitched slightly. His eyelids fluttered and his mouth opened.

,,J-jimai-aine?" Stefan asked weakly. Jimaine cried tears of happiness as she rested her head on his chest, arms wrapped around his shoulders.

,,Du Lebst," 'You're alive,' Jimaine sniffled. She pulled back and stroked his hair softly.

,,Ja, ich Lebe," 'Yeah, I'm alive,' Stefan whispered. ,,Nur bei dein Hand," 'Only by your hand.'

The two siblings sat there in the closet in the dark, fearing the demon would return, but not very much caring, because both of them were alive.

As Jimaine and Stefan huddled in the closet, Shadowcat lay broken at the foot of the stairs, unaware of Wolverine, wounds healed, coming to find her. So far, he had checked every apartment for her, then realized she could follow her scent trail. He finally arrived at number 6, and pushed open the door. There were traces of Kurt's scent here. And huge, huge amounts of blood. Shadowcat lay on the ground in a small ball.

"Kitty!" Wolverine yelled. Shadowcat didn't hear anything. She kept rocking slightly and moaning quietly. He reached out and touched her shoulder lightly. She leaped up and pressed herself into the wall, expecting to see Nightcrawler crouching there, back to finish the job. Instead, she saw Wolverine. He had a large amount of dried blood down his front, but was otherwise unharmed.

"Logan?" Shadowcat asked hesitantly. The noise made her throat burn worse than hell's _fire_. She took one hand off her throat and pointed to her ear, grimacing at the amount of pain coursing through her neck.

"_Mission – is – over_." Logan mouthed. Kitty nodded. "_We – have – to – find – Kurt_."

Kitty thought for a moment. Then she shook her head quickly.

"_Why_?"

"It bit me," Kitty rasped, facing the pain.

"_Let – me – see_," Logan mouthed, pulling Kitty's hands away. Nightcrawler's upper canine teeth had put deep puncture wounds in the muscles of Kitty's neck, but his bottom ones had put grazes in her windpipe. Logan knew that a bite from that monster hurt, and sympathized with Kitty

"_We're – going – to – go – find – it_ – _and – kill – it._" Logan mimed determinedly. Kurt was no longer Kurt, he was something much, much less than human, and something much, much more dangerous.

Kitty looked hesitant, but nodded reluctantly. Before he opened the door and stepped out into the night again, Logan sniffed the air, pausing and leaning toward the source of the scent. He opened the closet and saw the two Germans there.

"Who're you?" he asked. Stefan looked to Jimaine.

"I am Jimaine," Jimaine said. Logan looked at her, then back to Kitty.

"_Is – this – that – Jimaine – girl – you – were – talking – to – on – the – phone_?" Logan mouthed. Kitty stepped forward and looked closely at Jimaine's face. Despite the dried blood on her face and in her hair, Kitty recognized Jimaine from the time long ago when Kurt had introduced them. She nodded.

"Kurt's sister?" Logan said, cocking an eyebrow. Jimaine nodded, using the wall to stand shakily. Logan took in her and Stefan's bloody necks. "He got to you?"

"Ja. Kurt deedn't reelize eet vas us," Jimaine explained. She put out her hand and helped Stefan stand. He was much taller than Jimaine, so he was easily able to lean on her shoulder.

"We're goin' to find Kurt now." Logan declared, walking down the hall to the door. He didn't realize nobody was following. When he finally _did_ look back, though, he saw Jimaine using the last reserves of her strength to heal Kitty's neck and ears.

"Um, how do you say it, _dankeh shon_?" Kitty stuttered, making a brave stab at the sort of German she had heard Kurt speak. Jimaine smiled, exhaustion on her features and in her panting breath.

"Come on," Logan prompted impatiently. The three started coming down the hallway after Logan. Logan, who was following his nose on a vague trace of a scent, led the group through the dark, sooty, deathbed streets of Porthensburg.

He reached the place where the old scent of Nightcrawler lingered. It had teleported. Question was, where to?

"Where did Kurt like to hang out when he lived here?" Logan asked Jimaine suddenly. She thought for a moment, then replied.

"Zere's a cave, about halv a mile outzide ze town. He alvays used to go zere ven people vould teaze heem." Jimaine replied, breathing heavy from the effort. Logan nodded.

"Take us there."

The four arrived at Kurt's cave minutes later, but Stefan was too weak from the walk there. Kurt had attacked him the worst, and he was sweating profusely, breath coming in ragged, greedy gasps, eyes closed. Jimaine propped her brother against a tree and stayed by his side. Logan stayed with Jimaine and Stefan. Kitty was supposed to, but she had other ideas.

"Don't walk away, Half-Pint!" Logan cautioned. Kitty looked to the river the flowed silently down the cliffside near where they were. It cascaded in a waterfall into a pool that was oddly quiet. Just behind the waterfall, there was the entrance to a cave.

While Logan was looking elsewhere, Kitty started off towards a small path that led to the entrance. Kitty climbed it and saw the beautiful scene inside. There was a perfectly round cave, with a glimmering, glowing aqua pool in the middle. There was a small ledge around the outside of the pool, where Kitty could see impressions of Nightcrawler's feet.

The cave itself seemed to glow from the rock, and the pool in the middle was not crystal clear, but clouded with silver. The full moon had freed itself of its overcast shield and was shining, distorted and dripping, through the waterfall. It was a place of magic; a place of immense healing magic, Kitty could sense.

In the most shadowed part of the cavern, a small, dark, condensed shadow perched on the ledge, seemingly looking into the smoothly undulating surface of the pool. Kitty looked up around the domed ceiling and saw the rippling, tranquil patterns of the water on the white stone. The waterfall blocking the entrance didn't make a sound in this cave, so Kitty could easily hear the shadow's cries.

"Kurt?" Kitty whispered hesitantly. Her voice echoed slightly. The shadow looked up. Kurt's eyes, no longer the frightening crimson, were enough to break Kitty's heart. Filled with tears and remorse, they begged for forgiveness. She recognized that this was not Nightcrawler, inhuman and primordial, but Kurt, pained and broken. Even so, she was instinctively cautious of her predator.

Kitty started to come nearer along the ledge, forcing herself closer to comfort _Kurt_.

"No, Kätzchen! Don't come any nearer," Kurt pleaded. Kitty kept padding along the edge. Closer up, she could see that Kurt had been crying, and his fur was matted with blood and spiked with tears. He opened his mouth in horror at how close Kitty was, and Kitty saw that his fangs had bloodstains on them.

"You can't hurt me, Kurt, I survived." Kitty said. In the movies, this was the line all the girls said to their dangerous boyfriends. It usually worked. But Kitty wasn't in a movie. Kurt stood, suddenly much, much taller than Kitty. He glowered down on her, his gold eyes darkening. However, his instincts weren't taking over. His emotions were.

"How do you know zat, Kätzchen? How do you know zat I don't feel like actually keeling you? Vhere vould you go to escape me? Outside? I'd chase you down and rip you to pieces like a deer. In ze vater? You'd drown. If you stay near me, _you vill die._" Kurt shouted, his voice ringing in Kitty's ears. He grabbed Kitty's neck suddenly, squeezing her throat tightly. Kitty choked and grabbed at his hands, but his eyes were hard and determined.

"So I'm not going to hurt you, eh?" Kurt asked, his voice as hard as his eyes. He let Kitty go suddenly, and she fell, coughing, to the ground and almost rolled into the pool. Kurt stood, looking down on her. As she stood, though, he seemed to deflate slightly, his eyes softening.

"Kurt, I know you're in there. Just please, throw off whatever's controlling you and come out. Come back to us Kurt, we all miss you. We need you." Kitty said, her voice thick with tears. Kurt gazed into her eyes, internal battle raging. Would he follow Kitty's words and throw off the emotions, or would he ignore her and sink back into himself?

"Oh Kätzchen! I'm so zorry zat I hurt you! I keeled all zoze people, oh ze blood, ze taste I vill never forget . . . Mein Gott, ich bin ein Mörder! Jimaine und Stefan, und Margali, I just keel people! I'm a real Dämon now, oh Gott, Kätzchen," Kurt sobbed falling to his knees, throwing his arms around Kitty and embracing her tightly. Kitty recoiled slightly with reinforced instinctual fear, but patted his back comfortingly and found herself crying into Kurt's shoulder, especially at the memory of the little boy.

They separated just as three sharp claps echoed.

"Oh bravo, Kurt. So touching. Kitty, you're such a good girlfriend. Shame you couldn't have helped me. Then you wouldn't have to see this," Kitty wheeled around and saw nothing. Then, a figure on the other side of the pool rippled into sight. The blunt haircut, dark eyes, slender figure, it was Milani. She was standing on the ledge in a white blouse and black skirt and heels. Who did she think she was? How did she get here? What was she doing?

Kurt growled at her. Milani ignored this.

"If you're wondering how and why I'm here, Kitty, let me explain. I've been working for Magneto for years. Undercover at so many different high schools, and _dear Lord_ are you children stupid! I'm twenty eight, little Kitty. Magneto sent me all over the country, looking for that one boy, Kurt. When I'd finally found him at the Xavier Institute, all my hard work was rewarded!

"Then he left. Magneto was _not_ happy. He told me to become friends with you, to push you very gently and make you tell me where Kurt had gone. I hitched a ride here and tried to kill Kurt so many times, and one time, you got in the way, _Kitty_. That pipe to the head was intended for Kurt. You see, Magneto has some unfinished business with Kurt. _Mystique_," Milani spat the name like poison, "had to come barging in, right in the middle of his experiment. Kurt should have been dead and gone at this point, a long time ago. That's why I'm here."

From the waistline of her skirt, Milani pulled a .22 pistol. She aimed it at Kurt and cocked it, smiling too kindly for what she was about to do.

"This'll all be over in just a second," she grinned. Kitty was paralyzed in fear, screaming in her mind, _I trusted you! You can't do this!_

It all happened so fast. One heartbeat, Milani stood with the pistol aimed at Kurt. The next heartbeat, Kurt lay crumpled on the ledge, blood and life leaking from body as Kitty just started to comprehend it.

_A shot rings out_

_Across the lake,_

_Bringer of Death _

_In that quiet place._

Kitty screamed and reached for Kurt's still, prone form, it seemed, in slow motion as Milani grinned and turned on her heel, fading to invisibility as the clicking of her heels on the stone faded. When Kitty reached Kurt, it was hard to tell who was more upset: Kitty, tears streaming down her cheeks, or Kurt, shot in the chest, barely clinging to the toeholds of life.

She knelt down by his side, in the pool of rapidly spreading blood, fighting her gorge again, but so far past the point of caring about blood. Kitty cradled Kurt's head in her lap, crying. Kurt looked up at her, knowing he was going to die. He had one last thing to say.

"Kätzchen," he gasped. Kitty's lip trembled. "tell everyone I loved them. I love you."

His eyes closed and his chest stopped moving. Kitty bent over his head, stroking the tears and blood out of his fur, smoothing his hair, all the while, moaning and crying with grief. All the emotions racing through her, shrieking at her, it was too much.

Very gradually, a gentle noise reached Kurt's dead, unhearing ears. It wasn't the waterfall, but something he had never heard, yet knew quite well. Soft, hushed hoofbeats. A figure crossed in front of the distorted moon through the waterfall, which parted like a curtain. On the horizon, a shimmering, silvery-blue and black figure appeared.

It grew larger and more colored as it came closer to the waterfall, going from silvery-blue to rainbow as Kurt's closed eyes picked out more details. He would have gasped if he had breath. Kitty was still cradling his head and crying, but at this creature, this moon-animal, came closer, Kurt was able to move. He stood and looked around. At his feet lay his body, the bullet wound in his front, Kitty mourning.

The creature, a shimmering female horse, was cantering over thin air. From the places where her hooves struck the air, shining stars appeared, each a different color. When the mare's feet touched the white stone of the cave floor, sparks flew. When her hooves hit the water, ripples spread.

Kitty gasped. The water was rippling as if something stood on it. What was happening? The waterfall was parted and stars hung in the air, suspended on a clear path from the moon. She thought it was a trick of her mind, a mystery of grief.

The mare slowed to a halt by Kurt and he took in all her details. Her deep, shining, ebony black coat, as neverending and unfathomable as the space and stardust she was born from, was glossy and portrayed the smooth muscles on her back and neck. Her mane and tail were made of pure gold, her mane long and silky smooth, her tail brushing the water. She had gold feathers [1] around her legs that rippled every time she took a step. Her eyes were understanding and welcoming, her face kind.

The Celestial Mare was not built to impress, but to comfort and soothe the confused, lost, sad souls of the newly departed. A soft, rainbow glow emanated from her body and there was a sweet, familiar smell like warm, comforting, vanilla about her.

Kurt's spirit, separate from his dead body, reached out a hand and placed it on the mare's shoulder. The mare nickered softly and Kurt knew what he had to do. He swung up onto the mare's broad back and entwined his hands in her silken mane. The bent her neck and touched her warm, velvet muzzle to his foot before turning around and beginning to canter off, back over the path of stars she had paved.

The motion of the Celestial Mare's gait was incredibly fast, and Kurt only had a few seconds to look back and take one final glance at the dregs of his old life before it was all whisked away.

The Celestial Mare rose quickly over the treetops of Germany, her hooves silent on the stars and air, her mane blowing gently around Kurt, making him sure he wouldn't fall from her back. She was a sweet mare, and that was why Deity had chosen her for this painful task. The mare knew her job well: comfort the poor souls, and take them to Dreamland.

Kurt knew none of this, but knew that he was scared, and pained, as the Celestial Mare broke a gallop smoothly out of the atmosphere. Kurt was going to heaven.

**[1] Feathers are the long, silky hair around draft horse's hooves. Some pony breeds have small feathers, but feathers usually only appear on coldbloods and warmbloods. They're not feathers, like from a bird.**


End file.
